‘Sahara’ homers, leaving ‘Pitch’ at 3rd

In an overall soft market saturated with comedies of one kind or another, “Sahara” led the charge into the nation’s movie theaters over the weekend with an estimated $18.5 million at the box office.

In something of a surprise, Peter and Bobby Farrelly’s baseball-themed romantic comedy “Fever Pitch” opened at No. 3 with about $13 million, just behind the second-weekend tally of Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez’s “Sin City,” which took in an estimated $14.1 million, according to Miramax’s Dimension Films.

“Sahara,” based on one in the series of Dirk Pitt novels by Clive Cussler, skewed to an older audience. A survey of ticket buyers in four cities found that 64% of them were 25 and older and divided about evenly between the genders, Paramount spokeswoman Nancy Kirkpatrick said Sunday.

Directed by Breck Eisner and starring Matthew McConaughey as Pitt with Steve Zahn at his side as Al Giordino, the movie seemed to play to bigger crowds in the middle of the country, according to Kirkpatrick, who noted that McConaughey took to the road in an Airstream trailer for six weeks to promote the movie.

Bruce Snyder, Fox president of distribution, said “Fever Pitch,” which stars Drew Barrymore as an ambitious consultant who falls in love with a dedicated Boston Red Sox fan played by Jimmy Fallon, predictably drew more females than males, not quite 60% versus a little more than 40%. Snyder said the movie’s business was on par with another Barrymore romantic comedy, “Never Been Kissed,” which grossed $11.4 million in its first weekend in 1999 on its way to a total of $52.4 million. He predicted a similar outcome for “Fever Pitch,” estimating that it would top out at least 2 1/2 to three times the opening figure.

Not surprisingly, Fox’s top engagements for “Fever Pitch” were in or around Boston, where much of the movie was filmed, including Fenway Park, with scenes shot during the World Series, according to box office tracking firm Nielsen EDI Inc.

Seven of the top dozen films this week are comedies, if you include the animated “Robots” and kid picture “The Pacifier,” and three of the top five are comedies. “There’s a lot of comedy in the marketplace,” one studio observer pointed out. “The whole market is down.”

Nielsen EDI estimated the total weekend box office for all films in release was about $84 million, compared with $115.8 million for the April 9 Easter weekend last year. Moviegoing is lower than the comparable 2004 three-day period for the seventh straight weekend, the longest slump since an 11-week stretch in late July through October of 2000, the tracking firm Nielsen EDI said. Hollywood is counting on business picking up shortly. “XXX: State of the Union,” with Ice Cube taking the Vin Diesel role, “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and the period epic “Kingdom of Heaven” open over the next few weeks.

The first mega movie of the summer arrives mid-May in the form of “Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.”

The movie has the field largely to itself until “The Longest Yard” (starring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock) and the animated adventure “Madagascar” kick off the traditional summer moviegoing season on Memorial Day weekend.

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Box Office

Preliminary results (in millions) based on studio projections.

*--* Movie 3-day gross Total Sahara $18.5 $18.5

Sin City 14.1 50.7

Fever Pitch 13.0 13.0

Guess Who 7.1 51.1

Beauty Shop 7.1 26.4

Robots 4.7 111.0

Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous 4.1 37.5

The Pacifier 3.0 100.5

The Ring Two 2.9 72.3

The Upside of Anger 2.6 12.4

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Source: Nielsen EDI Inc.

Los Angeles Times